Women science professors among 3M award’s 10 best

Part of an elite community of great university educators, 10 professors lead the way as they challenge and inspire their students

TA Loeffler, a professor of human kinetics at Memorial University of Newfoundland—and a world-class mountaineer—knows every student has her own Everest to conquer. “Go for it! Go big!” she scrawled on one student’s tentative first assignment. “Funny,” the student later reflected, “how such simple words can be so powerful.”

Malgorzata Dubiel, a senior mathematics lecturer at Simon Fraser University, could offer an equation to explain the exponential impact of great teachers, but why not let a student put her gratitude into words: “My attitude toward mathematics has changed from one of loathing to one of fascination.”

Dubiel and Loeffler have reached the summit of their profession. They are two of 10 professors named this year to the 3M National Teaching Fellowship—an elite community of 228 of the country’s best university teachers.The award, now in its 23rd year, was established by 3M Canada in collaboration with the Society of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. It was the idea of John Myser, then-president of 3M Canada, as a long-overdue recognition of the inspirational power of great professors. Maclean’s became the media partner for the awards in 2006.

The award has contributed to a gradual shift in attitude as university administrators realize what students in overcrowded lecture halls have long known: that fostering and rewarding exceptional teachers contributes as much to an institution’s impact and reputation as the greatest research. This year’s winners—selected for the quality of their teaching, their leadership and contributions to pedagogy—were chosen from 52 carefully vetted nominations. The number and quality of submissions continue to rise, as adjudicators search for the elusive “wow factor” that exceeds even the 3M’s high criteria, says program coordinator Arshad Ahmad, a business professor at Concordia University, and a 3M fellow himself.
While a professor can impact thousands of students, the fellowship sees its task as influencing the very science of teaching. The fellows are about to publish a book on the benefits and perils of silence in teaching and learning. The next major project, likely welcomed by students weighed down by ponderous academic writing, is an exploration of narrative storytelling as a teaching tool.

The fellows will gather in Windsor this June for a meeting of the teaching and learning society. They’ll attend a retreat this November at the Fairmont Le Château Mon¬tebello in Quebec. “Projects are hatched,” Ahmad says of the meetings. “This award is about people getting together and creating a kind of ethos that is bigger than themselves.” Among the 2008 fellows:

Malgorzata Dubiel, Department of Mathematics, Simon Fraser University
Midway through a lecture in Math 190, her course in Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers, Dubiel invokes the thoughts of Homer to illustrate the leap between two- and three-dimensional shapes. While math is indeed an odyssey for many phobic students, she isn’t seeking wisdom from the ancient epic poet. Her Homer is Simpson, the cartoon guy from Springfield.

In a brief clip on the lecture hall screen, Homer falls into a 3-D world of spheres, cones and complex shapes. “What’s going on here, I’m so bulgy?” he says, looking at his transformation from flat to fat. The Simpsons segment is loaded with advanced concepts and inside jokes. “Oh, there’s so much I don’t know about astrophysics,” Homer laments. “I wish I’d read that book by the wheelchair guy.” His plaintive reference to Stephen Hawking, the theoretical physicist, draws sympathetic laughter. Math is a frightening universe for many of these students, too. Lucky for them Dubiel is an exceptional guide.
Dubiel learned her love of math and problem-solving as a girl in her native Poland. Part of it came from a state-run school system that did not steer girls from the subject. The rest came from her father, an engineer and, really, a rocket scientist at a military technical academy. She was surprised, after coming to Canada in 1982, at the uninspired level of public-school math instruction. “Part of it is the confidence of people teaching it. If you don’t think you’re good at math yourself, you may not be sufficiently confident to teach it.”
Many of those educational casualties end up in Dubiel’s classes. Not only does she teach math to future teachers, she helped design FANx99, a mandatory remedial program populated by students who flamed out of high-school math. Passing FAN is a mandatory step to an undergrad degree at SFU. She defuses their defeatism with good hu¬¬mour, an engaging collection of math puzzles, examples of its history, personalities and its uses in daily life, including The Simpsons. By starting with an interesting problem, and working toward its solution, she believes students are more likely to see the relevance and, yes, beauty of the tools and structure that underpin the discipline.

Nicole Weber and Nicole Engel, both aiming at teaching careers, entered Dubiel’s course with trepidation. Both struggled with math in high school. “She touches the students who are very frustrated,” says Weber. “She actually made me love math,” says Engel. “She took the time to show me the background, history and the reasoning and context I needed.” They’ve come to realize that math is a skill to be earned, not a gift bestowed on a select few. “Math is hard but it’s not impossible,” says Engel. “It takes work.”

Katherine Frego, Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick (Saint John) was also named an award winner.